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There’s nothing like an arena filled with thousands of screaming schoolchildren to put a little life into an athletic team.

The Mississippi RiverKings had to get some of that energy when they took the Landers Center ice Tuesday morning to play the Huntsville Havoc in front of 6,134 youngsters from the Mid-South area in the first of two Face Off Field Trip school-day contests the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) team plays each season.

The vocal support would not turn out to be enough for the home team, however, as the visiting Huntsville Havoc throttled the RiverKings 4-2.

Circling the parking lot before the game, one could see buses from several area schools, including DeSoto County schools, North Panola and South Panola, Harrisburg and Marion, Ark. and the Durham Bus Services vehicles that carry students in the Shelby County school district, among others.

Face Off Field Trip is a program the RiverKings have offered the past several years since the team came to DeSoto County, dating back to the team’s time in the Central Hockey League and has now been continued since the franchise joined the SPHL.

Isn't that three in a row? All losses since trading Jamie Hill to Fayetteville for Shane Bennett & Cody Walsh?

Yea, but think its got more to do with the 4 players they lost to the ECHL. Forwards Derek Sutliffe 13gp 7g 7a. Dan Tedesco 11gp 5g 8a. Defensemen Vytal Cote 10gp 3g 3a. Donald Olivieri 4gp 3g 2a. That was a lot of their firepower. I figured all that up listening to the game this morning. After the 1st period and going down 3 goals they played a lot better. Just going to take some time for people to readjust and other people start stepping up for all the missing players.

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Its the only drawback for being so good and in first place to start off the early season. Everybody going to take notice and start picking up all your players. So far Roanoke has had 3 call ups that i can remember and 2 are back with us. Not counting the couple we have signed but they started in the ECHL and we havent seen them this year. Just imagine if the ECHL would steal four of our top players from Roanoke and Fayetteville? . That would be a nightmare.